Penguins Win…BUT

It wasn’t a thing of beauty. Not by a long shot. But our Penguins managed to stave off a furious third-period push by the hated Flyers at PPG Paints Arena last night to triumph, 4-3, in their first game back following a 10-day hiatus.

Tristan Jarry literally saved the day with 16 third-period stops, many of the ten-bell variety. And captain redoubtable, Sidney Crosby, came through in the clutch as he always does, lacing a wrist shot past Philly goalie Brian Elliot from the right circle 55 seconds into overtime for the game-winner.

But…and it’s awfully big BUT…

There were issues aplenty. Including some personnel decisions that baffled me. I’ll get to those in a moment.

First off, in a style eerily reminiscent of last season, the Pens played in spurts. Granted, it was a terrific spurt…featuring goals by Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust and Kris Letang packed into a tidy span of 7:09…enabling our boys to snatch a 3-1 lead. But they proceeded to take the final 20 minutes off.

Not exactly a blueprint for success, especially for a squad with legit Stanley Cup aspirations.

I’ll give the guys a pass….for now. They were coming off the prolonged break. It’s obvious they miss Jake Guentzel and Dominik Kahun…how could they not. I’m surprised at the impact Kahun’s absence has had. It’s forced coach Mike Sullivan to juggle the forward lines. Suddenly, the pieces don’t seem to fit.

Perhaps it’s incidental, but we don’t seem to be winning as many puck battles. And if you don’t win puck battles, you can’t possess the puck, the lifeblood of Sullivan’s attacking style.

Oddly, that’s not what really bothers me. Rather, I’m concerned with some of Sullivan’s recent personnel decisions. To digress, I think he’s done a marvelous job this season. The fiery skipper definitely merits consideration for the Jack Adams Award. If there was an award for “comeback coach of the year,” he’d be deserving of that, too.

Still, I think he may be getting too smart for his own good while trying to fix what ain’t broke. Frankly, his decision to dress four right-handed shooting defensemen and play Chad Ruhwedel over Juuso Riikola was a head-scratcher.

I’m not knocking Ruhwedel, a solid depth defender who’s done a really nice job for us. But I thought he looked like a fish out of water at times playing the off side, no easy feat for anyone. Causing Sullivan to limit him to a dozen minutes of ice time while upping the load on the other defensemen.

To my eye, it’s not like Ruhwedel’s head and shoulders above Riikola. Their traditional stat lines are virtually identical. And Riikola has a decided edge in advanced stats. He has a better Corsi (52 vs. Ruhwedel’s 48.8) and a way better 5-on-5 shot attempts differential (plus-24 vs. Chad’s minus-24).

Plus, Riikola’s a left-handed shot. He’d be playing his natural side. And it’s not like the kid’s a stiff. He skates well, has some sand in his game and possesses a bomb of a shot.

It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Along those lines, Other Rick and I were talking yesterday about how excited we were to see Anthony Angello get a look. We both feel the Pens are missing a power element and hope Angello might be able supply it.

After raising the issue of foot speed I sarcastically remarked, ”Sullivan will probably play him four minutes.”

Okay, I was wrong. The kid got 4:13 of ice time.

Shades of 2017-18, when Sullivan meted out playing time to his fourth line of Ryan Reaves, Carter Rowney and Tom Kuhnhackl the way Ebeenzer Scrooge doled out schillings prior to A Christmas Carol. Granted, the unit wasn’t a combination made in hockey heaven. But Sully’s reluctance to play them made the Pens a three-line team. And you don’t win Stanley Cups playing three lines.

Back to the present. For some reason he favors journeyman Andrew Agozzino over kids like Sam Lafferty and Joe Blandisi. Okay, neither of them was lighting up scoreboards. But both can skate and they add some aggression. And he doesn’t play Agozzino, either (6:12 of ATOI). Again rendering us a three-line team in a four-line league.

Perhaps Sully’s just trying to weather the storm until Kahun and Nick Bjugstad return. But he needs to guard against being too cute or too conservative. Play the kids, for goodness sake. Their collective spunk, energy and enthusiasm’s contributed greatly to the team’s surprising success. It’s part of what brung you.

Enough grumbling. To borrow from the old Eat’n Park commercials, Crunch the Capitals!